Wanna know what's driving Republican politics in California? It's not the Republican governor, or the Republican minority in the legislature. It's the Flash Report, the blog and web site run by Jon Fleischman, an Orange County political operative (and friendly acquaintance of your blogger) who is also an official of the California Republican Party. Flash Report posts often drive news coverage and radio talkers around the state.

If you doubt the Flash Report's power, check out the memo -- at the bottom of this item -- that is being distributed by Gov. Schwarzenegger's team and the campaign committee that supports the measures on the May 19 special election ballot. The memo, titled "Flash Report Myth-Fact," offers a direct refutation of multiple Flash Report posts criticizing the most important measure, Prop 1A, which would establish a new state spending limit and beef up the rainy day fund. The memo also provides a useful back-and-forth (sort of centrist vs. conservative back and forth) on the advantages and disadvantages of Prop 1A.

Updated: A milestone for this brand new blog: our first pick-up. From the Republican side of things, a brief mention in this morning's Flash Report, a conservative site run by Orange County's Jon Fleischman. From the Democratic side, here's Steve Maviglio at the California Majority Report. (A note: this blog is very, very non-partisan in political matters. Your blogger is registered "decline to state,"  votes for candidates of both parties, and considers himself unpredictable. He wrote in Angel manager Mike Scioscia --a Thousand Oaks Republican, by the way -- for governor in 2002, the year the Halos won the World Series).